U.S. Is Expected to Put Penalties on Syria

By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS

Published: March 26, 2004

WASHINGTON, March 25—
The Bush administration, which has debated for months whether to impose sanctions on Syria, is expected to announce them as early as next week, officials say, but there is an internal debate over whether the move will undercut the administration's outreach to Arab nations.

Prodded by Congress, the administration will impose mostly economic sanctions against Syria, which the United States accuses of failing to cooperate fully in the fight against terrorism, the officials say.

But they say they must wait until tempers have cooled in the region over Israel's assassination this week of the top Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and until more time can be given for an American-backed initiative to encourage political and economic reform in Arab nations.

The posture highlights the contradictory concerns in the administration as it seeks to promote more open and tolerant societies in the Arab world while making clear that it will not accept support for terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, which receive Syrian support.

After weeks of interagency consultations, administration officials are focusing on adopting as many as three economic sanctions from a list contained in the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Act, which Congress overwhelmingly approved last year.

The sanctions include a ban on American exports -- other than food and medicine -- to Syria, a prohibition on American businesses' investing or operating there, and a ban of transactions in which the Syrian government has any interest and that are subject to American jurisdiction.

Syria has full diplomatic relations with the United States but few commercial ties, making the trade and investment bans largely symbolic. But advocates of sanctions said the potential for blocking financial transfers and the very fact of American opprobrium could be a powerful disincentive for potential foreign investors in Syria's oil industry.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, an original sponsor of the legislation, said the government of Bashar al-Assad must pay for harboring terrorist leaders.

''It's important to both embarrass Syria as well as hurt their economy,'' said Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican said. ''The Bush administration has done everything it could to show that Damascus has to change its course.''

State Department officials acknowledged that they have received limited cooperation from the Assad government in recent months, but their position appeared to harden after they concluded last month that Damascus was ferrying weapons from Iran to radical anti-Israel groups in Lebanon.

''As a general proposition, sanctions are a blunt instrument that should be only used as a last resort and in the most extreme circumstances,'' said Adam Ereli, the State Department spokesman. ''But this is a bed the Syrians have made for themselves.''

The administration is promoting what it calls the Greater Middle East Initiative, a proposal to foster democratic, free-market reforms in Arab nations, with a free Iraq at its center. That project, which includes $120 million in financial aid, in addition to the billions the United States pumps each year into nations from Egypt to Pakistan, is off to a rocky start.

Administration officials had hoped to advance the reform process by adopting a resolution among the world's wealthiest democracies later this year when the so-called G-8 members meet in June.

But even as it is still taking shape, the initiative has been criticized by some Arab and European nations, which accuse the United States of trying to dictate the future of the Middle East.

''There's a great deal of skepticism, because the U.S. traditionally has supported autocratic regimes in the region,'' said Farid Abboud, the Lebanese ambassador to Washington. He said the Bush administration should be careful in what it wishes for; truly democratic votes in several countries, he said, would reveal populations harshly critical of the administration's policies.